Last Book You Read....

[stimpy]

Liquadate Paris - Sven Hassel.

Great book by a fantastic author.

Defenetly one of the better Sven Hassel books, "Blitzfreeze" is another of my favourites, the Germans and the Russians just hating one another.

Here's a green dot for liking Sven.

[Disco Duck]

Barbarians at the Gate - a book about a corporate takeover at the height of Wall Street's M&A boom in the 1980s. Brilliant and slightly scarey, although quite techy if you don't understand the ins and outs of corporate finance.

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada - an account of two people's small-scale campaign against Hitler in Berlin during WW2. Written by a German in 1946, so pretty authentic and very moving. Highly recommended.

[Sooky]

Defenetly one of the better Sven Hassel books, "Blitzfreeze" is another of my favourites, the Germans and the Russians just hating one another.

Here's a green dot for liking Sven.

I've currently read:

SS General

Liquadate Paris

Wheels of Terror

Comrades of War

Reign of Hell

Asignment Gestapo

I was just about to start Monte Cassino but may read Blitzfreeze first. Still about 5 books that I don't own which I'll need to find and I really want to read Legion of the Damned.

[stimpy]

Monte Cassino was the first one I read, many moons ago, and is another favourite. I thought I had 2 copies of Legion of the Damned but alas only one was found. My house has that "just burgled" look so it could still be hiding away in a corner somewhere.

There you go £2.72 delivered to your door.

[jojo]

just finnished in the belly of the beast by jack abbot. brilliant. 9.5/10 - a book about life in prison in america writen by someone who spent pretty much his whole life in prison. In prison he starts reading every book he can get his hands on and become quite knowledgeble. he also writes about other random things.

half way through the penguin krishnamurti reader by krishnamurti - just him writing about stuff and how to start a revolution in yourself and hopefully society . An education and insparational

Edited July 23, 2010 by jojo

[dooronron]

Shantaram....Gregory David Roberts......excellent, but at over 900 pages it does take over your life for a while

[endieinreekie]

I've currently read:

SS General

Liquadate Paris

Wheels of Terror

Comrades of War

Reign of Hell

Asignment Gestapo

I was just about to start Monte Cassino but may read Blitzfreeze first. Still about 5 books that I don't own which I'll need to find and I really want to read Legion of the Damned.

I used to love his books when I was younger and I am pretty sure I had managed to get all of them. I think, if I remember correctly, that Legion of the Damned was the final book.

[Sooky]

I used to love his books when I was younger and I am pretty sure I had managed to get all of them. I think, if I remember correctly, that Legion of the Damned was the final book.

Yeah, but theres no real order to any of them though is there?

[endieinreekie]

Yeah, but theres no real order to any of them though is there?

Not really, but you can tell which campaigns the guys are serving in which would give you a rough idea of which order the books should be in.

[Sooky]

Not really, but you can tell which campaigns the guys are serving in which would give you a rough idea of which order the books should be in.

Yeah but it doesn't really matter if you don't read them in right order. Theres sometimes only 1 or 2 references to older campaigns that they done in other books.

[saint dave]

I used to love his books when I was younger and I am pretty sure I had managed to get all of them. I think, if I remember correctly, that Legion of the Damned was the final book.

I think Legion Of The Damned was the "original"book it followed them from the start of the war til the end.think it was more or less Sven Hassels war diary,the later novel were made after the success of this one and were certainly fictional

[Mak]

The last book that I read was one that was given to me called The Interpretation of Murder.

It was a weird story, which was partially based on Sigmund Freud's visit to America, with him having to solve a murder whilst there.

The thriller part of is was adequate enough, but I thought that it took unacceptable liberties with historical fact, for instance in portraying Jung as an unstable anti-Semite. Whilst that is certainly one school of opinion, and the debate over it is an interesting one, should it really be being presented as fact in a novel? I'd say not.

Reading Antonia Fraser's Marie Antoinette: The Journey at the moment. Very enjoyable so far.

[endieinreekie]

Yeah but it doesn't really matter if you don't read them in right order. Theres sometimes only 1 or 2 references to older campaigns that they done in other books.

True. I certainly didn't read them in any order and still really enjoyed them

[endieinreekie]

I think Legion Of The Damned was the "original"book it followed them from the start of the war til the end.think it was more or less Sven Hassels war diary,the later novel were made after the success of this one and were certainly fictional

Ahhh.

[VillaKnollBoy]

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada - an account of two people's small-scale campaign against Hitler in Berlin during WW2. Written by a German in 1946, so pretty authentic and very moving. Highly recommended.

Also just read this and I would highly recommend it also.

[Sooky]

True. I certainly didn't read them in any order and still really enjoyed them

Although my one complaint would be that I do sometimes notice small mistakes in it. Of course that may not be Sven's fault and instead the fault of the translator or something but just something I sometimes notice ie. "As Barcelona was at the hispital" I assume that was meant to be "hospital" as his stomach was ripped out and "i" and "o" are next to each other on the keyboard.

[Hey! Ho! Jambo!]

Recently finished Endgame by David Rohde. A fantastic book about the fall of Srebrenica and the massacre that followed. It covers each of the last days of the enclave from all sides speaking to Dutch peace-keepers, Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Muslims, JNA soldiers and so on. Packed full of gore to be honest.

[Monster]

I know I should probably post this in the bargain basement, but as it's specifically a book site I thought here was as good a place as any.

Get two box sets of books for £16. There's a lot of rubbish here, but also some decent efforts like Paulo Coelho and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. There's even a box of all seven of the Adrian Mole diaries.

Oh, and if you type in the code Y040 you'll get free delivery.

[Mak]

Reading Antonia Fraser's Marie Antoinette: The Journey at the moment. Very enjoyable so far.

Wasn't convinced with this in the end. Not bad and gave an alternative view of one of the most unfairly vilified women in history, but the constant attempts to justify every aspect of her life grated a bit. You were left almost with the feeling that the author thinks that France would've been better off had there never been any revolution. Still, if you managed to overlook those parts it was an interesting read.

I've also recently fanished David Gemmell's Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow. It'd best be described as historical fantasy, and is the first in a trilogy about the Trojan war. I enjoyed it, and am looking forward to the second in the trilogy turning up so that I can carry on with it.

At the moment, I'm reading La Préférence Nationale by Fatou Diome. It's a collection of short stories written from the point of view of a Senegalese immigrant to France, describing the racism that she has to put up with on an everyday basis. I'm only really reading it to keep my French up to scratch, but parts of it grate with me, chiefly the paranoid tone. Reading it, one could be forgiven for thinking that every single white French person is a despicable racist, constantly addressing every black person that they encounter as 'tu' (as opposed to 'vous') and treating them like they're uneducated simpletons. The over the top tone detracts from the message.

[footiechick]

Spies by Michael Frayn

The "spies" are German spies in war-time England that the young boys think are around every corner. An older Stephen looks back on this childhood summer and the events that happened with his friends and neighbours that changed his future.

Good read, fair enjoyed it.